With a 5.7 in a 'Burb vs a 4.3 in a Blazer, you need to keep in mind the HP:weight relationship. Sure the 'Burb weighs more and it has 2 extra cylinders, but that extra power makes up for the added weight and then some, making it easier for that truck to move itself than a Blazer and it's 4.3. Hence why I seriously don't get why 2nd gen Blazers weren't offered with a 4.8 or 5.3 as an option. For the extra power and slightly extra weight of the bigger engine, you'd get such better fuel economy.

no problem for the info Alex.

i also forgot to sing the praises of the 350. (kinda sounded like i'm pro-diesel in the last post :))

i had the engine in my gas 'Burb get washed out (ie. flooded) by some ass-hat in a Hino. hugh rain storm in August, 5 or 6 years ago, and i was going down this side road on the way home. it was flooded, but only to the bottom of the doors (it was a 2WD, so only 18 inches or so deep), but this tool comes into the water, and when it starts to push on his truck (creating a wall) he guns it, sending a wave over my hood, sucking water into the engine.

dragged it home on my trailer. let the exhaust drain out, pulled the plugs (4 cylinders were full), turned it over by hand (pumping out the water). couple of squirts of oil in each cylinder before putting the plugs back in, changed the oil, and she fired right up. drove that truck for another 80,000km (year & a half or so), never had an issue with the engine. EVER!

Yeah I've heard really good things about the 350, which is one of the big reasons I'd switch. I'm not really happy overall with the performance or the overall daily use of the 4.3. I know mine has a few things wrong with it, but overall I don't think it's that great of an engine.
I still have yet to see said burb, so there is a LOT up in the air.

The 350 will last about as long as you want it to as long as you take decent care of it. The original 305 in my 86 Monte SS was still running great with 287,000 miles on it- and I drove it pretty hard- got it when I was 17 :).

I definitely agree that my '93 with 180K+, had a little more "UMPH" than my '99 with only 28k, unfortunately I haven't driven the 99 enough to get a good idea of the gas mileage.

Phil you have a good point about the power to weight. I'll have to continue my research...I'm curious to see what the power to weight is on one of those compared to a little blazer.

If you're going to go through the trouble of putting in an LT1 why not just go for an LS1? Even though you said it's not an LT1 to begin with...

I'm not swapping engines...it's a project that would take wayyy too much money and something I'm just not interested in in the least bit. The Blazer is too small a truck for me, and I've always had plans and hopes to go full sized. There's no point in pouring that kind of cash into something I never planned on keeping for my life. My question was about the 5.7 because I'm looking at trading my Blazer for a Suburban.

whoa!i never realized you were kickin' the Blazer to the curbs Alex, i just thought you were lookin' @ getting a bigger DD.

i thought you were gonna keep the Blazer as a weekend warrior.

all those mods..............*sigh*

if its 95+ it gets decent mileage
96 is when they started vortec 350s
my dad had 95 z71 that got 12-14 on the highway
newer models are quite a bit better